Forget The Palestinians, I Want A Vanity License Plate

July 7, 2008

I think it was on the front page of the Wall Street Journal late last week. Not really an especially important story. But it tells you how money has begun to have no meaning in the oil kingdoms, no meaning at all. This report came from Abu Dhabi. But it might as well have come from Dubai or Qatar, Kuwait or Saudi Arabia.

The narrative was about the auctioning of license plates. One sheikh paid $5 million for his vanity ID. Another paid just $1 million. Now, maybe if you have as much money as these fellas do, a million here, a million just ain't that much.

But it does tell us something about values in the sheikdoms and emirates of the Arab orbit. My guess is that the money spent on such "I'll show 'em who's at the top" symbols in the region is more than they all contribute to the Palestinians for whom their souls grieve.